About Us

Foot Patrol is a student-run volunteer-based safe walk service offered to all students and members of the university community. It’s a service, within the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO), that works with Protection Services to ensure a safe environment for all. Foot Patrol volunteers can walk with you from anywhere to anywhere within a 45 minute walking radius around main and RGN campuses and ride with you on several bus routes. Check out our boundaries.

Get a walk!

You can get a walk in several different ways:

Give us a call at 613–562–5800 x 7433

Call us from campus payphones for free by pressing the yellow Foot Patrol button

Come to our office in the University Centre across from the bookstore

Ask a Foot Patrol team that’s patrolling the campus

Preregister to have patrollers meet you at the same time and place every week

Come visit us!

Foot Patrol’s office is near the bookstore in the University Centre. Foot Patrol also shares the SFUO office at the Health Sciences Campus (RGN) in the Student Lounge. Patrollers are at RGN between 8 pm and 11 pm weeknights throughout the year.

Hours of Operation

2015 – 2016

Monday to Friday

FALL

September 7th to October 30th: 8pm to 2am
November 2nd to December 21st: 5pm to 2am
December 22nd: 5pm to 11pm

WINTER

January 11th to March 11th: 5pm to 2am
March 14th to April 26th: 8pm to 2am
April 27th: 8pm to 11pm

Foot Patrol is also open Sunday September 6th and Saturday September 12th for 101 Week.

Our office is open from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Feel free to stop by to talk to the staff!

Foot Patrol will be closed on the following dates:

October 12th: Thanksgiving

October 26th to 30th: Study Week

December 23rd to January 10th: Winter Holidays

February 15th to 19th: Study Week

March 25th to 28th: Easter Break

April 28th: Closed for the summer

Bus Riders

Foot Patrol volunteers can ride with you on several bus routes! We can go on OCTranspo routes 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 85, 86, 87, and 106 and STO routes 21, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 59, 67, and 77 within our regular walking boundaries and in expanded boundaries for OCTranspo routes 94, 95, and 96 (between Westboro and Blair) and 97 and 98 (between Westboro and South Keys). Volunteers can also walk within a 15 minute radius around any of the bus stops between the aforementioned stations. Please note that Foot Patrol won’t pay for your ticket.

Casual Walks

As much as we love our bright yellow uniforms, we know that some of you prefer walking home unnoticed. So, if you ask them while getting a walk, volunteers will remove their jackets and carry them in a backpack. They will be wearing casual clothes underneath.

Campus Safety

At Foot Patrol we offer you a safe alternative to walking home alone. Our operations are guided by three philosophies: non-interventionism, safety in numbers and equality.

Non-Interventionism: No patrolling team gets involved, physically or verbally, in any altercation, keeping themselves and their walk safe from harm.

Safety in Numbers: Patrollers always perform walks and patrols in teams of two, preferably co-ed, in order to increase their safety, and that of their walk.

Equality: Anyone can get a walk with Foot Patrol granted it’s within our 45 minute walking radius! Don’t be shy, and don’t worry – we respect everyone’s choice to use the service and keep your walk confidential!

FAQ

About Foot Patrol

Foot Patrol is open to the entire University of Ottawa community – students, professors, staff, and community members. We don’t ask for any sort of identification or ask for your status at the University.

Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. During this time, one (or more) of our staff members will be working in our office (UCU 08A). Safe walks from Foot Patrol are not available during these hours. Please note, our office is closed during reading week and the holiday break.

Our hours of operation are the hours when we offer safe walks to the University community. We understand that our clients request safe walks more often when it is dark outside. Therefore, our hours change a couple of times a semester, based on daylight savings time.

Unfortunately, Foot Patrol does not offer safe walks during the weekends or summer months (May to August). Because we are a volunteer-based service, it is difficult to get volunteers to commit to hours during those times. Although we are not available, Protection Services is able to provide assistance on campus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can reach them at 613-562-5800 x 5411 (Emergency Line) or 613-562-5800 x 5499 (non-emergency line).

Foot Patrol volunteers can walk with you from anywhere to anywhere within a 45 minute walking radius around main and RGN campuses. Our volunteers can also ride with you on several bus routes and walk within a 15 minute radius around any of the bus stops. Check out a map of our boundaries. If you have any questions or concerns about our boundaries, please email or call us and we’d be happy to clarify.

If you see one of our team of volunteers patrolling campus in their yellow jackets, feel free to approach them and request a walk.

Call our office during our operating hours.

Visit our office during our office hours or our operating hours.

Call us or send us an email during our office hours and we can create a pre-registered walk for you. Please note that our volunteers who work during our operational hours in the evening do not have access to our email account, so any emails sent after 4pm will not be seen until the next business day.

Please let the dispatcher know where you are going so that we can ensure your destination is in our boundaries.

Foot Patrol promotes a safe and accessible campus for everyone, through our service of accompanying you on your travels as well as patrolling campus as additional eyes and ears for Protection Services. While a Foot Patrol team does not have a client, they patrol main campus, inside and outside. It also allows potential clients to approach the team to inquire about our service or request a safe walk.

Our office phone is not equipped with Call Waiting, so it’s possible that our dispatcher was on the phone with another client. Feel free to leave a message or call us right back. If ever you can’t get a hold of us and need a safe walk, please call Protection Services at 613-562-5411.

We rely on our volunteers to sign up for shifts and to show up – sometimes things happen and we don’t have as many volunteers available at one time. This can be due to many people requesting our services at one time, our volunteers being on a lengthy walk or a lack of volunteers on a specific shift. Our service is on a first come first serve basis, but we do our best to respond to all our client requests to the best of our abilities.

Foot Patrol is free to use! Thanks to a successful student referendum, students at the University of Ottawa pay $1.00 (per full-time student) and $0.50 (per part-time student) every semester so our service can be available for those who need it.

We have a fairly simple and easy to use service, but here are some tips to help things go smoothly:

Please have your pickup location and destination known before calling.

Be respectful of our patrollers and dispatchers – they’re there to help you.

Plan ahead: if you book your walk ahead of time, there’s far less chance that we won’t have an available team versus if you want a walk immediately.

Be accessible: Many buildings are locked at night and it is easiest if you can meet our team at the doors of the building. As well, if there is a problem such as your team not being able to find you or they will be late, our dispatcher will call you.

We can absolutely provide you with a safe walk. Please let the team of volunteers accompanying you, or the dispatcher when you first request your walk, know of any accommodations you may need so we can best meet your needs

As much as we love our bright yellow uniforms, we know that some of you prefer walking home unnoticed, so we created the ‘Casual Walk’ program. When our team of volunteers come to meet you, they won’t be wearing their bright yellow jackets or vests, but they can be identified by their black drawstring bags (with our logo on it) and their name badge. You can request a casual walk when you speak with the dispatcher, or let your team of patrollers know when you meet with them.

Many of you rely on public transportation to get around in Ottawa, so our volunteers are happy to accompany you on the bus to get to your destination. When you request your walk, just let our dispatcher know what your destination is and that you plan to take the bus. Please note that we will not pay for your bus ticket.

Volunteers

If you would like to volunteer with our service, please fill out a volunteer application here. Once we’ve received your application, one of our staff members will be in contact with you. All of our volunteers must attend a 15 minute interview and successfully complete a 3-4 hour training session before beginning volunteer shifts.

We are always looking for volunteers who are reliable, dedicated and excited to give back to their university community. We ask that our volunteers complete one 3 hour shift per week, for a total of 9 hours per month (as volunteers are allowed to book off one week per month). We also require that our volunteers visit the Ottawa Police station to have a police background check. Finally, our volunteers are also required to sign a volunteer contract that stipulates that they will respect all rules and regulations of our service.

Volunteering with our service is very rewarding –you get to meet great people, get exercise, explore our campus and Ottawa, and help people get to their destinations safely! We also host monthly volunteer appreciation events, give out monthly prizes, offer scholarships, attend galas and give out free swag.

If you have any questions/concerns that are not addressed in this FAQ, please contact us at foot.patrol@sfuo.ca or by phone 613-562-5800 x 7433.